Poetry of sensation refers to a literary movement revolving around poetic works that appeal to the senses. This kind of poetry is inspired by the Romantic poets or "Lakers" (Hallam). Poetry of sensation attempts to recapture a past moment, thus these poets appreciated the truly lyrical voice and "bold, rapid, comprehensive strokes" (Hallam,) of the Romantics Poets. Wordsworth in his "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" wrote that poetry is the "spontaneous overflow of powerful... emotion recollected in tranquility". The Poets of Sensation attempted to recapture the romantic lyric voice. However, sensationalism was not exclusive to poetry. Sensationalism is common in mid-Victorian fiction as well. Authors such asWilkie Collins used sensationalism to engage the reader in his detective novels such as The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868).
Sensation Poets are often synonymous with the Poetess. In Victorian context, the Poetess is the natural mode for women even though it was highly constructed. The Two mythological models often used for the Poetess are Sappho, who was abandoned by her lover and writes beautiful poetry through pain, and Philomela, who was transformed into a nightingale after she was raped by her brother in law. Two of the most successful Poetesses Felicia Hemans and Letitia E. Landon are similar to Sappho in that they both had to endure an enormous amount of pain in their personal lives.
Part of the reason for this movement towards sensationalism was to provide an escape from John Stewart Mill's concept of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the view that an actor/actress should provide the most general happiness for the most people (Oxford English Dictionary). Mill claims that happiness is both sensual and intellectual pleasure. He also states that the human concept of dignity should push one to pursue intellectual pleasure rather than sensual. Poetry of sensation contradicts Mill's preference for intellectual pleasure and emphasizes play among the senses. One of the biggest opposers of Mill's theory of utilitarianism was John Ruskin, a Victorian aesthetics theorist, who argued that beauty is truth and not usefulness (Landow).
In addition to opposing utilitarianism, poetry of sensation was influenced by time periods the Victorians believed were simpler. Wide scale industrialization created a new lifestyle centered around the working class moving to cities and working in factories as opposed to remaining in the rural country. It created a class divide between people of work and people of leisure. With this rapid change, people attempted to recapture the time periods of romance and adventure. Thus the Victorians were interested in the Arthurian myth and the founding of Britain. One theory about this Victorian Medievalist obsession was that the era King Arthur allegedly lived in was also a time of great social reformation (Holloway and Palmgren). According to A. Dwight Culler, in The Victorian Mirror of History, the medieval period was so fascinating to Victorians because of its unknown and changing form:
"The medieval period was large enough, various enough, and sufficiently unknown and mythical, that each person could find there what he wanted-- a hierarchy a community, a code of conduct, a form of hero-worship, a system of ritual, a charitable establishment, a style of architecture, a resplendent wardrobe" (cited in Holloway and Palmgren).
This mysticism surrounding the medieval period allowed for the Victorians to "go beyond or to completely dismiss true historical study of the period in order to focus on what fit his/her current imagination or taste" (Holloway and Palmgren). However, this medievalism was more than a "one size fits all trope" (Holloway and Palmgren). The practice of molding medieval myths and images to support arguments was used on a variety of different debates in the Victorian period, including reform of the Poor Laws and women's sports (Holloway and Plamgren)
The most successful poet of sensation, as well as medievalist, was Alfred Tennyson, who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1850 (Ricks). Hallam describes Tennyson's "impassioned voice" was something easier to feel than to describe. Hallam claims that Tennyson had a "strange earnestness in his worship of beauty which throws a charm over his impassioned song". Like the other poets of sensation, Tennyson attempted to recapture the true lyric voice of the "Laker" (Hallam) poets. In June 1830, Tennyson published his first work Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (Ricks). Some of his most "elegiacally lyrical" (Ricks) works, "Mariana" and "The Kraken" (Ricks), were included in Poems, Chiefly Lyrical. However, despite the lyrical elements, the poems never truly captured the Romantic voice Tennyson and many other Victorian poets pursued. This created a kind of poetry inspired by the Romantics but also fundamentally different (Hallam). Tennyson used lyrical elements in his second published work titled Poems in which he played with arousing the senses using various means such as a medievalist elegy in "Morte d'Arthur" and a dramatic monologue in "Ulysses" (Ricks).
In the following lines of the 1842 addition of "The Lady of Shalott", Tennyson blends both a lyrical arousal of the senses with a Victorian version of an Arthurian myth:
Illustration of Lady of Shalott in Poems, Chiefly Lyrical. Source- Wikimedia Commons
Who is this? and what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they cross'd themselves for fear,
All the knights at Camelot:
But Lancelot mused a little space;
He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott." (11.163-71)
The music and rhyme lightens the tone of an otherwise morbid event. Therefore this poem is not purely lyrical. Additionally, Tennyson uses this Arthurian myth to explore whether this pursuit of Lancelot (or love in general), which ultimately kills the Lady of Shalott, was worth the effort.
B.E.D
Works Cited
Hallam, Arthur Henry. "On Some of the Characteristics of Modern Poetry"" The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry and Poetic Theory. 1st ed. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 1999. 1190-1205. Print.
Greene, Roland. "Romantic and Post-Romantic Poetry." The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. 4th ed. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2012. 1214-1215. Print.
Sensation Poets are often synonymous with the Poetess. In Victorian context, the Poetess is the natural mode for women even though it was highly constructed. The Two mythological models often used for the Poetess are Sappho, who was abandoned by her lover and writes beautiful poetry through pain, and Philomela, who was transformed into a nightingale after she was raped by her brother in law. Two of the most successful Poetesses Felicia Hemans and Letitia E. Landon are similar to Sappho in that they both had to endure an enormous amount of pain in their personal lives.
Part of the reason for this movement towards sensationalism was to provide an escape from John Stewart Mill's concept of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the view that an actor/actress should provide the most general happiness for the most people (Oxford English Dictionary). Mill claims that happiness is both sensual and intellectual pleasure. He also states that the human concept of dignity should push one to pursue intellectual pleasure rather than sensual. Poetry of sensation contradicts Mill's preference for intellectual pleasure and emphasizes play among the senses. One of the biggest opposers of Mill's theory of utilitarianism was John Ruskin, a Victorian aesthetics theorist, who argued that beauty is truth and not usefulness (Landow).
In addition to opposing utilitarianism, poetry of sensation was influenced by time periods the Victorians believed were simpler. Wide scale industrialization created a new lifestyle centered around the working class moving to cities and working in factories as opposed to remaining in the rural country. It created a class divide between people of work and people of leisure. With this rapid change, people attempted to recapture the time periods of romance and adventure. Thus the Victorians were interested in the Arthurian myth and the founding of Britain. One theory about this Victorian Medievalist obsession was that the era King Arthur allegedly lived in was also a time of great social reformation (Holloway and Palmgren). According to A. Dwight Culler, in The Victorian Mirror of History, the medieval period was so fascinating to Victorians because of its unknown and changing form:
"The medieval period was large enough, various enough, and sufficiently unknown and mythical, that each person could find there what he wanted-- a hierarchy a community, a code of conduct, a form of hero-worship, a system of ritual, a charitable establishment, a style of architecture, a resplendent wardrobe" (cited in Holloway and Palmgren).
This mysticism surrounding the medieval period allowed for the Victorians to "go beyond or to completely dismiss true historical study of the period in order to focus on what fit his/her current imagination or taste" (Holloway and Palmgren). However, this medievalism was more than a "one size fits all trope" (Holloway and Palmgren). The practice of molding medieval myths and images to support arguments was used on a variety of different debates in the Victorian period, including reform of the Poor Laws and women's sports (Holloway and Plamgren)
The most successful poet of sensation, as well as medievalist, was Alfred Tennyson, who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1850 (Ricks). Hallam describes Tennyson's "impassioned voice" was something easier to feel than to describe. Hallam claims that Tennyson had a "strange earnestness in his worship of beauty which throws a charm over his impassioned song". Like the other poets of sensation, Tennyson attempted to recapture the true lyric voice of the "Laker" (Hallam) poets. In June 1830, Tennyson published his first work Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (Ricks). Some of his most "elegiacally lyrical" (Ricks) works, "Mariana" and "The Kraken" (Ricks), were included in Poems, Chiefly Lyrical. However, despite the lyrical elements, the poems never truly captured the Romantic voice Tennyson and many other Victorian poets pursued. This created a kind of poetry inspired by the Romantics but also fundamentally different (Hallam). Tennyson used lyrical elements in his second published work titled Poems in which he played with arousing the senses using various means such as a medievalist elegy in "Morte d'Arthur" and a dramatic monologue in "Ulysses" (Ricks).
In the following lines of the 1842 addition of "The Lady of Shalott", Tennyson blends both a lyrical arousal of the senses with a Victorian version of an Arthurian myth:
Who is this? and what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they cross'd themselves for fear,
All the knights at Camelot:
But Lancelot mused a little space;
He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott." (11.163-71)
The music and rhyme lightens the tone of an otherwise morbid event. Therefore this poem is not purely lyrical. Additionally, Tennyson uses this Arthurian myth to explore whether this pursuit of Lancelot (or love in general), which ultimately kills the Lady of Shalott, was worth the effort.
B.E.D
Works Cited
Hallam, Arthur Henry. "On Some of the Characteristics of Modern Poetry"" The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry and Poetic Theory. 1st ed. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 1999. 1190-1205. Print.
Greene, Roland. "Romantic and Post-Romantic Poetry." The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. 4th ed. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2012. 1214-1215. Print.
"Introduction to Utilitarianism." Introduction to Utilitarianism. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. <http://victorianweb.org/philosophy/utilitarianism.html>.
Palmgren, Jennifer A. "Introduction." Beyond Arthurian Romances: The Reach of Victorian Medievalism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. Print.
Ricks, Christopher. "Tennyson, Alfred." Oxford Dictionary National Biography. Oxford, 1 May 2006. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. <http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/view/article/27137?docPos=1>.
Tennyson, Alfred. "The Lady of Shalott (1842)." The Lady of Shalott (1842). University of Toronto. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. <http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/lady-shalott-1842>.
"The Industrial Revolution: An Introduction." The Industrial Revolution: An Introduction. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. <http://victorianweb.org/technology/ir/ir1.html>.